127 Hours

As we collectively come down from the Oscars, I am forced to reflect on the Franco-filled universe. I don’t want to reflect, believe me – but as you know, he’s EVERYWHERE. The New York Times this morning greeted me with a Franco cocktail. Entertainment Weekly Entertainer of the Year 2010? Check. Two oversaturation notifications on my husband’s Facebook page? (As in – check these out – it’s just too too too too too much. One of them, just to get you to click, is headlined “James Franco to Teach a Class About Himself.”) Check. And now, I am torturing myself even more … as I sit here and watch a screener of 127 HOURS. His arm just got stuck. Am I ready for all of this?

Actor James Franco attends the ‘Homework’ Premiere at the Library Center Theater during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2011 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Sonia Recchia/Getty Images)
James Franco’s world domination, or at least his Where’s Waldo-like ubiquity continues unabated in Park City. Today he’s featured on a banner ad on the cover of the Salt Lake Tribune: Six Oscar Noms for 127 HOURS! (Lotta hometown pride for that film, which is set in Utah.) And even though he doesn’t have a film at Sundance, the actor-documentarian-performance-artist-PhD-student-Oscar-co-host does have, naturally, an art exhibit.
Actor James Franco (right) hosts the Playboy Party on January 21, 2011 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Tiffany Rose/WireImage)
It’s called Three’s Company: The Drama, and it is not (in the vein of his General Hospital-MOCA shenanigans) performance art. No. We were quickly corrected upon entering the New Frontier space-where dozens of multi-media, and every other kind of media (“transmedia,” “new media”) exhibits are on display-that Three’s Company is “immersive” media. As the placard on the wall outside of the installation explains: “By pulling apart the individual story elements of the show Three’s Company, and reconstituting them into a fully immersive (see?) experience, Franco allows viewers to activate the body in the act of remembering and reliving the iconic sitcom.”